We’re all just background characters in the lives of others, really. No matter how many aspirational sci-fi and fantasy stories tell us of ‘chosen ones’ and super-powered main characters realising just how unique and special they are.
Free Guy makes a bombastic action-comedy out of this very idea, starring Ryan Reynolds as an unimportant background character in the violent video game ‘Free City’. Australian audiences can watch Guy’s ascension from NPC to VIP in select cinemas right now, depending on your region’s ongoing coronavirus lockdown regulations. You can even use our handy session time finder to check if there’s safe screenings near you.
From high-concept comedy director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum), Free Guy has a killer cast of comedy talent to back Reynolds up. Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi and Joe Keery star as the game’s programmers, scrambling to stamp out glitches, whilst Lil Rey Howery is one of the fellow plebs trapped in a monotonous cycle of rote dialogue and destruction with Reynolds.
The most recent trailer below soundtracks Guy’s mind-blowing journey of discovery with The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’, meaning we’re in for a bit more soul-searching than the first goofy, sci-fi trailers showed us. We’ve all seen The Truman Show and The Matrix—looks like Free Guy could ask the same questions about reality and our responsibilities within it, but with a bunch more slapsticky gags and trademark Reynolds snark.
Free Guy has generally received positive reviews, with Total Film delivering an enthusiastic two thumbs up: “it’s clear to see why this intoxicatingly upbeat, community-spirited, and eye-popping movie needs to be seen at the cinema with an audience.”
That praise will be painful to hear for Australian audiences in lockdown, unable to check out Free Guy‘s free-wheeling violence and comedy in a packed cinema. Hopefully we’ll all soon be free to head safely back into theatres for fun movies like this.
